State Budget

When I became a member of KFTC a few short months ago, I wanted to find ways to make a difference in our community and in our Commonwealth. I had such an opportunity when I was able to attend the Fund Our Pension Rally in Frankfort on November 1. I have been shocked and horrified by our Governor’s depiction of state workers, and especially of public school teachers, as greedy, lazy, and yes, unsophisticated. As one speaker from Vocational Rehabilitation pointed out, he saved as many sick days as he could so if he or his wife or one of his kids had an accident or a serious illness, he would have time to take off. If a worker comes to work with the sniffles or on crutches or with a cast on their arm (I have done all three) and still does their job, and then retires with a couple of months of sick time built up, they should be paid for it. They could have stayed home and left work undone, but they didn’t. That is their time accrued and promised to them. The Governor has tried, with some success, to drive a wedge between the private and public sectors. What people need to know is that when I retired three months ago, the college-educated person who was hired to take my place started at $12.15 an hour. They could have started at Target with a high school diploma for $11.00 an hour, so, believe me, we don’t work for the state out of greed. I heard one speaker talk about how state workers clear our streets, teach our kids, inspect our swimming pools, help the disabled find jobs, keep us safe, put out our fires, and on and on. No, these are not lazy people, these are people who work for little compensation to care for their fellow citizens. And unsophisticated was just another word for stupid, so I will not even stoop to answer that one. It was clear from the signs and the speeches that no one was happy with that insult.

This study compares the economic performance of the nine states without broad-based personal income taxes to their mirror opposites—the nine states levying the highest top marginal personal income tax rates throughout the last decade.